Paris: escaped circus tiger executed

News of the tiger’s escape came after Paris’ public transport authority, RATP, briefly closed down a tramline in the 15th arrondissement, according to France Info – the public radio that broke the news.

Two eyewitnesses told the radio station said they saw the tiger descend onto the tracks.

“At first, we thought it was a technical incident,” said Thomas, a passenger of tramway 3a. “Then the driver told us it was a tiger. Naturally, we wondered what was going on. We were able to leave 15 to 20 minutes later.”

In the meantime, armed police and circus staff had rushed to the scene. At least two shots were reportedly heard.

Reportedly there were no attempts to put the animal to sleep, and evacuate, but just right forward killing was a chosen option. The heartless reaction of the authorities killing the magestic animal damages even further already plagued by misfortunes reputation of the city, losing its image of a dream touristic destination.

Brigitte Bardot Foundation and animal defenders across Europe were indignant about the accident, blaming Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo indifference to animal suffering in circuses. Some witnesses from neighbourhood also claimed they saw the three tigers jammed in a small cage of a few square meters “in misery”:

The growing protest about barbaric torture of animals in circus for fun of the least cultivated audiences, forced many big cities to ban use of wild and exotic animals in entertainment. Paris is clearly lagging behind the progressive and humanistic world trends – one year ago Iran prohibited animal circus.